Oy, Am I Worried

Tue, Jan 30th, 2018

As 2018 unfolds, top executives are worried about cybersecurity, disruptive technologies, and stiffer competition for talent, especially among some of the biggest names in the public company arena according to interviews held by the Wall Street Journal, and they should be worried. Coinciding with cyber issues and challenges on the talent front, there has been a feverish pace of turnover in some of the biggest names in corporate America, including Equifax, GE, Ford, Macy’s and Mondelez, to name a only a few.

In each case there were challenges on many fronts, but disruptive technologies that undermined their business or breaches, such as was experienced at Equifax, ultimately took out the corner office. The related challenge is that many on the CEO’s leadership team are not equipped to deal with these emerging and catastrophic challenges, and the bench of talent who are cyber-savvy are few and far between.

Closer to home, real estate executives are not insulated from these threats, but more often than not, they are less prone to put cyber and disruptive threats front and center because they do not connect with dots with their business. The fact of the matter is that no business is immune, so the real estate industry needs to get smart quick. Just ask our friends in the retail sector.